Ghanaians, other Africans in Guandong Province forced into quarantine

Africans in Dongguan, a major city in the Guandong Province of China have become the latest to suffer discrimination from Chinese officials as some of them have been forced into quarantine in the country.

This comes two days after Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry assured Ghanaians in China that the ill-treatment being meted out on Africans in the country would seize as the Chinese government had reached an agreement with the Ambassadors of the various African countries in China.

But at around 4:00pm on Wednesday, 15th April 2020, (which is 8:00am in Ghana) health officials stormed Dongguan asking Africans to prepare themselves to be moved into quarantine.

A Ghanaian in the city who was not happy with the development recorded a video of the officials who had refused to leave even after residents had called some officials at Ghana’s Embassy to speak to them.

“They came here to take us into quarantine for 14 days, but our leaders assured us this won’t happen again from the 13th. We’ve called some officials at the embassy to speak to them, but they insist on taking us in for 14 days.”

Together with other African residents, the lady has been moved to an unknown location to begin the 14-day quarantine and is yet to communicate with friends.

This has increased calls from Ghanaians in China for government to evacuate them from the country as they don’t feel safe any longer.

They are also pleading for the renewal of expired passports as soon as possible as that is the only way they can stay in the country without any issue with the law until the government of Ghana decides to evacuate them.

Some Africans in China have been forced into quarantine whilst others have been evicted from their homes for some days now.

This action which began in the Guandong Province has spread to other provinces in the country and according to health officials, it is in line with a testing campaign for COVID-19.

The Africans say they are being accused of having Coronavirus after officials say the pandemic was spreading in African communities in China.